


crack your bones with veins of gold

by tardigradeschool



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, IPRE Crew - Freeform, M/M, Spoilers for Story and Song, Temporary Character Death, spoilers for stolen century
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 13:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11852247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tardigradeschool/pseuds/tardigradeschool
Summary: In a hundred years, one tends to see their friends die a lot. It doesn't get easier, except it kind of does.





	crack your bones with veins of gold

**Author's Note:**

> title from "ribbon bows" by joanna newsom. i didn't intend for this to be a 5+1 but i guess that's how it turned out ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. i uhhhhh Love Lup and i couldn't stop thinking about those Good Boys that also love her. 
> 
> see the notes at the bottom for warnings

“How many spell slots?” Barry pants, not bothering to construct a full sentence. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get his breath back. 

Taako, in only slightly better shape, leans up against the side of their trench to peer over at the approaching troops before answering. “Two,” he says. He reaches over and uses a thumb to wipe some blood from the cut over Barry’s eye, then rubs the thumb on the knee of Barry’s pants. 

“I’ve got none,” Barry says, ignoring it; his jeans have enough blood and dirt on them already that they may have to be retired after this. 

“Perfect,” Taako says, “That’s what, one spell per two hundred warriors?”

“Just about,” Barry says grimly. “Got any new ideas?”

Taako grins at him, gap teeth on display. There’s mud on the side of his face from when he tripped earlier, as well as a scrape on his jaw; he’s about as covered in sand and sweat as Barry is, and yet, he’s lit up. “You know it, my dude. Watch and learn.” He props himself up on his knees against the side so he can see over the mound; Barry follows suit and hauls himself up. 

With Barry watching, Taako spreads his hands, warming up. Barry looks out over the unnatural desert, over the climbing wall of the Rolamin Dam, the pride of this world. It’s hundreds of feet tall, dozens of feet thick, and the only source of water here. And the reason for the devastating war that took place here only a few years ago. No wonder they reacted so strongly to the IPRE crew diving in for the Light. Barry instinctively cradles it closer to his chest. The troops are within half a mile of them now. 

Taako takes a deep breath and in a flash Barry realizes the first step of what he’s about to do. He must tense up, because Taako tips his head towards him and winks. “No worries,” he says. “I took a magic architecture class one semester, so I can definitely, probably do this.”

“I can’t swim,” Barry says, then realizes it won’t matter; at the speed the water hits them, they’ll probably die on impact.

Taako isn’t paying attention. He closes his eyes, breathes out, and clenches his fists. And the wall in front of them, reaching to both sides of the horizon, begins to crumble. 

“That’s one,” Taako says, unconcerned by the scene of destruction building in front of them even though Barry can’t tear his eyes away. The water is spilling from the walls, forcing the gash in the dam’s side wider. The soldiers in the back are being swept up, the ones at the front beginning to turn and realize what’s happening. Taako taps Barry on the shoulder and says, “That’s two.”

“What?” Barry says, and then he starts floating up, so quickly that it feels as though the world is falling out from under him. 

“See you next year!” Taako calls from the ground, voice growing faint as Barry gets further up. Barry swears, twisting to keep him in view, fighting off nausea from being up so high, supported by seemingly nothing. He clutches the Light against him. Taako must have fixed the spell so that it stayed working, because Barry stays hanging in the air even after the water washes over the dark spot in the desert that he knows is Taako. 

It’s a long time before Barry comes back to himself to feel for his Stone of Farspeech with his free hand and to clumsily check if it’s working again. When Davenport answers, voice just the composed side of urgently worried, it takes Barry a second to respond, because he’s still searching the furiously churning sand-brown water for any hint of Taako’s red jacket. 

 

The rolling mist that covers this world makes it difficult to do a battle, that’s for sure. Even Magnus, who operates within the shortest range of movement when fighting, has trouble with the limited visibility. Still, Barry thinks the fight is at least heading in their favor; the four of them who are there (himself, Magnus, Taako, and Lucretia) are working together as well as or better than they ever have.

The Light is secure, Barry keeps reminding himself throughout the battle. Whatever happens here, this world will be safe. He blasts back two attackers and then, quite suddenly, finds himself with no one facing him. 

“Duck!” Taako shrieks to his right and Barry obligingly drops to one knee without question. The creature that had been trying to sneak up on him is hit in the chest with a fireball. Barry gives Taako a thumbs up.

“Is that the last of them?” Magnus asks, wiping his sword on the pants of one of the fallen fighters. He’s taken a hit across the face and is missing a tooth, but he seems more exhilarated than winded.

“Hard to tell,” Lucretia says, peering behind her into the thick mist.

Barry is the only one looking at Taako when it happens. From seemingly nowhere, another seven foot figure launches itself out of the fog behind Taako with a growl and wraps one massive arm around his neck. Taako’s legs swing forward with the force of it before he starts struggling against the thing holding him, fighting for air.

“You will give us the object,” the creature snarls, unconcerned by Taako’s gasping. 

“We don’t have it,” Barry says, hoping against hope that he can reason with it. 

It turns toward him, Taako’s body swaying in its grasp. Barry tries to look as trustworthy as possible - he _ is _ telling the truth. Finally, the creature gives what sounds like a long sigh. “I believe you,” it says, long-suffering, and then, with only the warning of the creature’s arm going back, the tip of its sword comes through Taako’s chest, and twists. 

Barry might gasp audibly, but he can’t hear it over the pounding in his ears. Taako convulses weakly, still held up by the thing’s arm, and then Magnus’s knife flies past Barry and goes through the creature’s eye, up to the hilt. It staggers backwards, still holding Taako, then falls. Taako goes with.

Lucretia is the first there, easing Taako off the blade and lowering him onto the ground. Barry helps her, closing unsteady hands over Taako’s chest. Magnus kneels beside them. “Fuck,” he says, trembling with undirected rage, “Fuck, I should have been faster, I could have-” He scrubs a hand over his face; Barry sees his shoulders shake with a sob. Taako reaches one hand out and pinches Magnus’s ankle: a nonverbal  _ pull yourself together.  _ Magnus reaches down and fits his hand over Taako’s. 

“Gross,” Taako croaks, but he doesn’t let go.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Lucretia says to Magnus, her voice a good imitation of calmness. “We didn’t know what was going to happen.” She looks at Barry, the next best medical authority after Merle. Unfortunately, while necromancy gives one a pretty good background in reversing death, it doesn’t exactly teach healing, so Barry’s medical knowledge is primarily theoretical.

“There’s nothing I can do,” Barry admits, throat tight. “If Merle were here,  _ maybe _ , but even then-” 

Taako taps him on the wrist with his free hand. Barry looks down at him, struggling to drag in air, and Taako crooks a finger at him. Barry obligingly leans in closer.

“Do me a favor,” Taako says in his ear, voice rasping but still unmistakably his. “Don’t let my sister do anything stupid while I’m dead, okay? Unless it’s you, ha!” The breath of the laugh is too deep and it catches in his lungs. Lucretia braces his shoulder to keep him from curving up off the ground as he coughs. Taako forces in exactly four more shuddering breaths, and then he doesn’t anymore.

 

When Lup first gets sick, none of them think much of it. She coughs for weeks before any of them realize something is seriously wrong, and by then Taako was coughing too. They don’t find an answer until Taako and Merle go into town for groceries and the townspeople gape at Taako the whole time. 

“It was super weird,” Taako says, “Like, who wouldn’t want to get a look at this-” He gestures to himself. “-but it wasn’t really, like, nice.”

“Yeah,” Merle agrees. “Just staring.”

And Lucretia leans back in her seat and says, “Guys, have we seen any elves since we got here?” She’s making the face she makes when she’s trying to work out a sequence of events in her head, or trying to figure out how to phrase something. “Maybe we need to wonder why.”

When they ask around, it turns out the answer was right in front of them the whole time. There are no elves left, not as far as anyone can tell, because forty years ago they all died.

“A war?” Lup asks hopefully. She’s wrapped herself and her brother in a thick blanket for this crew meeting, and even though it’s a warm evening, both of them are shivering, huddling against each other on the couch. 

“No,” Davenport says. “A disease.”

Things deteriorate from there; after Lup passes out while gathering firewood for a campfire, Davenport restricts both twins to the ship. They’re feverish on and off, but the real problem seems to be the fact that neither of them can keep down food. They spend days meditating or sleeping, always together, but it doesn’t seem to do much good. Merle, with no background for this illness, spends most of his time trying to make food that they can eat. Both of them complain at long length, but Lup can stomach Merle’s pungent soup where Taako can’t, and slowly she starts to get better. 

Magnus, Davenport, and Lucretia all go to find the Light, leaving Barry and Merle alone on the grounded ship with the twins. Lup’s condition improves, to the point where she can work with Barry on their research for a couple hours a day, but Taako continues to decline. 

Barry never hears them talk about it. It seems unnatural that Taako wouldn’t be angry; he’s driven up the wall by the slightest injury or inconvenience, but these days he just sleeps and sleeps. Lup doesn’t seem to want to think about the possibility of his death, even if it is just until next year, and Barry only catches her dashing tears out of her eyes once. “Don’t be stupid,” she tells Taako. “I got better, you will too.”

Four months and three days after they land on this plane, Barry brings Taako his food and sits with him while he picks at it. It hurts to look at him sometimes; he’s so visibly diminished, both physically and in another, more profound way. He looks literally faded; even the light gold of his hair and the brown of his skin seem less than they were.

“Yo,” Taako says, and Barry looks up from his book. “I don’t want to beat around the bush - could you help a guy out and make this whole ordeal a little faster?”

“What?” Barry says.

“Look, we both know I’m not coming back from this,” Taako says. “Merle says I’ve got about two more months, but like, fuck that noise, you know? I’d rather skip forward to the part where breathing doesn’t hurt and we get to tease Magnus about his black eye, thanks very much. Anyway, don’t they teach you about this kind of thing in necromancy?”

“Kind of the opposite,” Barry says. “And that was just my major, I never - I was never a practicing necromancer.”

Taako shrugs. “Do I look like I care?”

He doesn’t. He looks sick and tired and miserable. “It’s almost eight months until the end of this cycle,” Barry says.

“We’ve lost people earlier,” Taako points out. “Besides, eight months, six months - is there a difference?”

“I’m not saying I will,” Barry says. “But when did you want to do this?”

“Now,” Taako says.

“Wouldn’t you want to - I don’t know, say goodbye to Lup?”

Taako shakes his head. “She’ll deffo know if I try to,” he says. “And then she’ll tell you not to, and you’ll listen, and I’ll have to hang out on this awful fucking planet for two more fucking months.” His sudden anger makes the words come out too hard, and now every time he breathes in, his lungs make this whining sound. Barry sees it now: the exhaustion, the frustration he’s hidden. The boredom. 

“Oh,” Barry says. Because the truth is, he does know how to do this. Six cycles ago, he spent the year apprenticed to a town witch. She was more of a midwife and a nurse than anything else, but Barry had wanted to know how to heal, and she taught him. Among other things. 

Taako looks at him. His breath hasn’t stopped wheezing when he inhales. There’s something like hope - or relief - in his eyes. “You’ll do it?”

Barry’s throat is dry. He swallows. “Yeah,” he says. “I’ll do it.”

“Hand me my mascara,” Taako says, pointing to where it lies on a desk, unused. “I don’t want to look like shit for this.” Barry passes it over. As Taako starts putting it on, he says, “You don’t have to tell Lup it was you, if you don’t want to. Or I can do it, when I come back.”

“Maybe together,” Barry says. He doesn’t like the idea of lying to Lup, but he thinks the truth will hurt less when she has her brother alive and healthy beside her.

Taako sets the tube down. “Okay,” he says. Ironically, this is the most animated Barry has seen him in months. “Do I need to do anything?”

“Lie down,” Barry says. “There’s no casting or anything, this kind of thing is all sort of… nebulous.” It is magic, in the sense that one needs an aptitude for magic to do it, but it is both much less complex and much harder than the magic-science Barry specializes in. It’s feeling-based, rather than fact-based, something that Barry had always shied away from until recently. 

Taako makes a face at him. Barry tries to smile back and finds, to his great displeasure, that he is holding back tears. 

“None of that,” Taako says, reaching up to wipe a tear off Barry’s face. His hand is hot and dry. “Save it for after, huh? Taako’s still kickin’, so hurry up.”

Barry chokes out a laugh. “Give me your hands,” he says. Taako obliges, almost cheerfully. If Barry hadn’t known him for decades, he wouldn’t have recognized the way Taako is blinking just from being horizontal; this simple conversation has worn him out. “Okay,” Barry says. 

“This isn’t going to be a lot of breathing in unison, is it?” Taako says. Lying down has made the wheezing in his lungs worse. “Because if it is, I can just get Merle to hit me upside the head with his axe or something.”

“No,” Barry says. “Just relax.” And Taako does.

Because the magic Barry’s doing is so hard to define - in fact, it’s so old it could technically be called magick - it’s hard to explain what happens. In the terms Barry was taught to consider it, he pulls Taako’s life up towards him, out of Taako. And then he lets go. 

_It won’t work on anyone who isn’t close to death_ , Esme, his teacher, told him, _but the_ _principles of it are used for much more sinister things than this._ She had given him a stern look then, a somewhat grandmotherly reminder that she was, in fact, much more powerful than he was. 

Barry opens his eyes. Taako’s still-drying mascara has left a tiny black flake on his cheek. As gently as he can, Barry reaches out and brushes it off. And he gets up to go tell Lup.

 

In the following few cycles after Barry and Lup get together, Barry realizes Taako is pulling away. Not from him or from Lup specifically, but sometimes when they enter a room, Taako will leave it, and he’s started bailing whenever Lup tries to plan for the three of them. At first, Barry thought it was just Taako being grossed out - not that he and Lup are especially heavy on the PDA but in his moments of social lucidity, he does understand that Taako wouldn’t necessarily want to watch his sister draped over someone, even a mutual friend - but soon it extends beyond that. Magnus, Davenport, and Lucretia all claim to not notice a difference, although Lucretia notes that he’s been quieter lately.

“But it might just be getting to him,” she says. “I mean, gods know I have rough years sometimes. Maybe he’s finally dealing with everything.”

Barry watches Taako whoop gleefully as they escape the Hunger, again, and thinks it probably isn’t that.

It isn’t until they’re shivering in a cave on some godforsaken ice world, curled up against each other out of necessity that Barry finally asks him about it. But he has hypothermia, so what comes out is, “Do you hate me for dating Lup?”

Taako squints at him. “What?” he says. “No. Jesus, no. The fuck kinda question is that? You’re spooning me right now, and you want to know if I hate you? Do you know how many people in this universe have had the pleasure of spooning me?”

“Oh,” Barry says. “Good.” He puts a hand over his mouth to try and breathe warm air onto his nose. “So then why’ve you been so skittish?”

Taako shrugs. “Look,” he says. “No, hang on, I can’t take this seriously.” He pushes himself away and turns over so that he’s facing Barry. “I’m gonna be real with you for a sec, okay? Lup and I, like… we’ve dated people before, but like, every single one of those people was a shithead. Or temporary. Mostly both. And dude, like, not to be a fuckin’ cheeseball or anything, but you’re not either one of those things.”

“Thanks,” Barry says drily.

“I just mean,” Taako says slowly, “The two of us, we’ve always been each other’s number ones, right? Or else bad shit would happen. So when Lup started dating you - which I called  _ decades _ out, by the way - it’s just different.”

“Taako,” Barry says. “You know that just because Lup and I are together, that doesn’t mean she loves you less, right?”

Taako snorts. “What are you, my new stepdad? Yeah,  _ Barold _ , I know.” 

“And,” Barry says, over-exaggerating the sincerity he does actually feel, “Obviously this isn’t, you know, your prerogative necessarily, but you and I don’t have to stop being friends either.”

Taako snickers, which was the goal. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’ll let you know when we start, and then we can worry about stopping later on, ‘kay?” Forty years ago, Barry might have taken him seriously, but he knows the minutiae of his crewmates expressions better than he knows his own name, and Taako isn’t even trying to sell this goof. It’s funny; Taako and Lup look, objectively, almost identical, but their smiles give them away.

Taako looks more relaxed now, his forehead resting against the rock beneath. He isn't shivering anymore. It takes Barry longer than it should to realize that this is not necessarily a good thing.

“We need to stay awake,” he reminds Taako. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Taako says, but his eyes are closing, and for that matter Barry’s are too.

(Lup yells at both of them when they reappear in their recorded states. “You fucking imbeciles,” she says, “How fucking hard is it for two  _ wizards _ not to freeze to death in a storm?”

Taako and Barry share a glance. Taako cocks his eyebrow up, just slightly, a wordless  _ you’re taking the blame for this one  _ and Barry has to conceal a grin.)

 

They’ve been imprisoned for two months and Taako’s hair has never looked better. Barry’s always done better with something to do with his hands and in this grimy stone cell he can’t even do something productive like futilely try to dig them an escape route out. Taako had offered his hair up as a joke, but Barry had two sisters growing up whose hair he used to braid and again, there’s nothing better to do. 

The metal wristbands that were snapped on them when they arrived here are thick and heavy, and Taako complains about them a lot; not only do they prevent them from doing magic, but they’re also, Taako says, just plain ugly.

The guards never give them quite enough food, but they have more than enough water, and even as their clothes and feet become coated with dust and dirt, Taako’s hair is so clean that it shines in the trickle of sunlight that comes through their window. 

It’s just cold enough at night here that they have to curl up together during the night. Actually, Taako doesn’t have to do anything; that’s what’s handy about meditation, you can do it pretty much anywhere. But Barry can’t lie down on the floor without the stone sapping the heat from his body, and without asking, Taako lays down next to him on the second night. For as long as Barry’s known the twins, Lup has always been more comfortable with touch than Taako is, seeking out contact where Taako drifts away. But now, in the seventh decade since they met, Taako seems newly ready to remain close. In the morning, without asking, it’s normal for Barry to prop himself against the wall and Taako to prop himself against Barry, and Barry will braid his hair. 

He can do pretty elaborate stuff now, with so much practice - he would probably be able to do more if Taako hadn’t had a mere two elastics on his wrist when they were brought in. 

On the scheduled day of their execution, Taako’s hair falls in waves down his back; they were hauled from their cell early enough that Barry hadn’t done anything with it yet. They are lead out into a square. Barry is more resigned than afraid at this point. Taako stands hunched in front of him, jaw clenched. Just before they are passed to another guard, Taako makes a small motion and then straightens up. There is a sound of metal on stone as a  wristband falls to the ground. Barry follows its path back to Taako’s hand; his thumb is at an odd angle. 

“Fuck yes!” Taako says. “Really didn’t think that one would work!” There’s a yell from behind them and Taako hurriedly grabs Barry’s shoulder. “Hold tight, Bluejeans!”

He Blinks them away, and when Barry opens his eyes, they’re standing in a field, the city they were trapped in barely visible in the distance. Barry whoops in celebration, throwing his hands up in the air. When he goes to embrace Taako, though, he stops.

There’s an arrow sticking out of Taako’s chest, and another out of his stomach. Taako seems just as surprised as Barry, but when he tries to step forward, he stumbles, starting to fall. 

Barry catches him, managing to stop him from hitting the ground, and pushes him gently backward until lying down. His hands hover over Taako’s stomach, afraid to leave the arrow there, but more afraid to make it worse. 

“Shit,” Taako says mournfully. “It would’ve been so cool if I managed that without dying.”

“You’re not dying,” Barry says, even though Taako quite possibly is. “If we can get you back to the Starblaster-”

Taako points at the wristband Barry is still sporting. “What, are you gonna carry me?”

With how meager their meals have been the past couple months, Barry probably could carry him easily if he were in good condition himself. As it is, all he can do is wrench at his own wrist, hoping the band will come off as Taako’s had. But Barry is solid-boned where Taako is slim, with no practice at dislocating thumbs, and it doesn’t budge. “Can you send up a flare?”

“They’d find us and take us back for execution,” Taako says. “I’d Blink us further away, but, uh, I don’t think that’s really on the menu right now.” He tries briefly to push himself up, then gives up the effort. “Dude, there’s what, two days left? Can we just not?”

There’s a breeze washing over them. It’s nice; it’s been eight weeks since Barry got to breathe anything other than the stale air of their cell. Barry looks at Taako, on the verge of passing out, and nods. Before Taako goes unconscious, Barry moves over so that he can rest his head on his leg. Carefully, he pulls Taako’s hair over on top of his knee, so it spills across into his lap, and he begins to braid.

 

Barry is still dozing when Lup comes into the room holding a piece of paper. She doesn’t say anything, just sets her coffee down on the bedside table and sits down hard on the bed next to him. Barry squints at her.

“Something wrong?” he asks, reaching for his glasses and starting to sit up. 

Lup exhales and puts the paper down on her lap. “It’s today, Barry.”

Barry’s still half-asleep, which is why it takes him a second after he shoves his glasses on to look at her, holding the list the Raven Queen gives them every day, her hair unbrushed and her nail polish chipping, shoulders tight, to understand. There’s only one name on the paper.

“Oh,” he says. “I wonder why she gave the job to us. I thought it would be Kravitz, for sure.” 

Lup scrubs a hand across her face. “I asked,” she admits. “I thought maybe it would be a nice thing to do, to give them a last couple hours in the morning, when neither of them knew.” Her shoulders shake with a sob and Barry instinctively pushes the blanket aside so he can move forward and embrace her. Lup turns toward him automatically, her head settling in the space between his jaw and collarbone. 

Barry smooths a hand over her back before saying anything. “At least we’ve talked to him about it, right?” he says. “We - I mean, we knew this was coming.” They actually talked about it over a century ago; at almost seven hundred, Taako has lived even longer than most elves. 

Lup takes a shuddering breath against his shoulder. “Right,” she says. “I know it’s not - it’s not goodbye. I just-” She stops talking suddenly, curls even closer to Barry. 

“Yeah,” Barry says. There are tears in his own eyes now. “I know what you mean.” He lets her breathe against him for a couple more moments before asking, “So how do you want to do this?”

Lup pulls back. “I want to see him,” she says. “I mean, I know that means it happens sooner, but I think he wants to know and maybe it’s selfish but I want as much time with him as possible before, you know.”

“It’s not selfish,” Barry assures her. “You’re his  _ sister _ , Lup. We’ll get ready and we’ll go.”

It’s midmorning when they arrive at the house. Around fifty years ago, Taako and Kravitz had agreed - or really, Kravitz had said and Taako had grudgingly conceded - that the sprawling mansion they had been living in was no longer appropriate for someone who had trouble getting up stairs. The new house they found is hardly more than a cottage, but it’s exactly as extravagant as their old home had been. 

Lup reaches out and knocks on the door. There is a long pause and then the door opens. Taako is floating a couple inches off the floor - his preferred mode of movement these days - in a trailing silk robe that drags on the ground behind him. He’s aged elegantly; his long, fine hair is silver now rather than gold, and there are spider-web thin lines crossing his face. His hands shake sometimes, even though he tries to hide it, but as he leans on the doorframe with badly concealed delight, it’s clear he’s the same elf he was when Barry met him six centuries ago.

“Sup,” he says, “You should have said something before coming by, we would have made food for four instead of two - oh.” His gaze - just as sharp as it’s always been - travels over the two of them, standing unannounced on his doorstep in their work clothes.

“Hey, bro,” Lup says, with the kind of finality only she can convey. 

“Is it today?” Taako says, and continues without waiting for a response.  “Ah, shit. Is there time for brunch?”

“Yeah,” Lup says. Her voice is only a little hoarse. “I think there can be time.”

Taako turns and hollers into the house, “Krav! Get in here!”

Kravitz emerges around the corner, holding a pan of eggs with no kitchen mitt. Barry and Lup had been pleasantly surprised to discover that reapers could look however they wanted; they look the same as they always have. Kravitz, though, looks significantly older than he did when they first met him, although he insists it isn’t on purpose. Taako jokingly accuses him of “sympathy aging”, but that’s exactly what happened; his hair is as gray as Taako’s is silver, and years of smiling have carved creases around his mouth and eyes. 

“It’s today,” Taako says, without preamble. 

Kravitz drops the pan.

“Fuck,” he says immediately, “Sorry.” Taako breezes past, suspended several inches over the eggs, and presses a kiss to his cheek. 

“I’m going to get dressed,” he says, and disappears into their room. 

When he comes back out, five minutes later, he’s draped in what looks like half the clothes he owns, with one pair of huge sunglasses resting on his nose, another on top of his head. He’s wearing about seven necklaces and at least two rings on every finger. 

“Okay,” he says, “I’m ready.” He reaches down to a platter, plucks off a piece of French toast, and takes an exaggerated bite. “We all knew that my breakfast food was to die for!” He slips his sunglasses down on his nose with a pinky to do a very dramatic wink. 

No one laughs. Taako sighs. 

“You guys are such downers,” he says. “I mean, I get that moving again is a hassle, but you guys might actually see more of me now that I’m gonna be chilling in the astral plane 24/7.”

“Why do you think we’re upset?” Lup says and Taako snorts. 

“If that’s how you’re going to be, I’m going with Bluejeans,” he says, drifting forward to loop his arm over Barry’s shoulders. “Let’s ditch these losers, dear brother-in-law.”

Kravitz has cracked a smile, but he still seems solemn. “Taako, let’s finish the food first, at least.”

They pass the morning, the four of them, eating and laughing and only crying a little bit. Taako is entirely dry-eyed. When the table is clear, Taako says, “Hang on, I forgot something.” He pulls his Stone of Farspeech out and waits while it rings. 

“Hello?” Angus says.

“Hi, kiddo,” Taako says. “Today’s the day. So anyway, I’m leaving all my stuff to you, and I  _ will  _ be sending Kravitz around to make sure that you’re decorating right. Also, if you don’t spend a certain amount of the money on spa visits, I have written it into my will that it transfers to Merle’s kids.”

There is a pause. “You should have said something,” Angus says, voice full of poorly hidden emotion. “You live close enough now that I could have come by, I could have said-”

“Not my style,” Taako says. “Plus, you will deffo be given the wonderful gift of unprompted visits with no prior warning to the astral plane whenever I get bored. Lup will put a bag over your head and whisk you off, it’ll be fun. This isn’t goodbye, my man.”

“Okay,” Angus says. There’s a noise that may or may not be a tearful laugh. “Okay, uh… see you later, then?”

“Seeya, Ango,” Taako says. He clicks the stone off. “Alrighty, we’re good to go.” He looks between the three of them. “You guys gonna fight over me?”

Lup and Kravitz look at each other, but Barry’s the one who steps forward. “I’ll do it,” he says. Taako grandly offers him a bejeweled arm, which Barry takes. And together, flanked by Kraviz and Lup, they step through into the astral plane. 

“Can we drop by to see the others before finishing up?” Taako asks, and he’s still holding onto Barry’s arm but his voice sounds different somehow, fuller, and when Barry looks over at him he’s standing straighter, face smooth again, freckled from the sun. He looks like Lup, in a way he hasn’t truly since Wonderland, and when he sees the three of them looking at him he cackles. “Kravitz, honey, fix yourself up so we’re matching again, huh? Not that I don’t love you in any and all forms, but-” Kravitz cuts him off, scooping him away from Barry and up into his arms to kiss him.

“I see how it is,” Taako says when the kiss breaks, tugging lightly on one of Kravitz’s black-again dreadlocks to pull him closer. “You’ve used me for my looks! Now that I’m beautiful again you’re jumping my bones, is that what’s up?”

“You’ve always been beautiful,” Kravitz corrects him. “But now I’m not afraid that you’ll break if I drop you.” He pretends to briefly lose his grip on Taako, as though he were actually going to drop him, and Taako squawks and tightens his arms around Kravitz’s neck.

“Ugh, please,” Lup says, but she’s not hiding her amusement well at all.

Taako cranes his neck back to look at her. “You’re just jealous that I’m the pretty one again,” he says cheerfully, stretching out one leg in her general direction, then offers Barry a smile and a finger gun. “Thanks for the ride, my dude.”

“It was an honor,” Barry says.

Taako throws him a tiny mock salute and says, with gusto, “Let’s _go!_ ” And they do.

**Author's Note:**

> possible tw: obviously a lot of discussion of death, and at one point Taako asks Barry to essentially kill him. because he's a) dying already and b) is coming back when the year resets, i don't know that it would necessarily be considered suicide, but i wanted to be thorough in case anyone needed to avoid that
> 
> and LOOK they've never specifically said what dnd race angus is, so he's still alive when taako's old if i say so!!!
> 
> catch me on tumblr at mcgonagollygee or here on the ao3 making up about 25% of the barry & taako tag


End file.
